Quote:
Originally Posted by slayda
Bottom line is; "'cause it's legal, don't make it right!" 
Just one man's opinion. |
yep, i agree with that completely in the context of, for instance, the dmca (we've had a recent example of how that can be abused...
). what about the opposite ? "because it's illegal, don't make it wrong" ? moejoe made a very strong point about sharing being part of our cultural heritage. content providers are currently trying to prevent even sharing among your immediate circle of friends and family through use of drm schemes. many people would say that file sharing is just an extension of that culturally ingrained tradition being adapted to the new digital world we live in, where thanks to internet and other technologies the world is growing progressively smaller. on this forum, for example, i can discuss from people from places like texas and australia
where i've never been. i now consider a lot of the members here my friends. i share plenty of things with my friends who live in the same city i do ; books, cds, dvds... so why should i not be able to share a book with a friend who lives in a different city ?
i think the point that business models have to evolve is the most important thing to bear in mind. O'Reilly makes a very strong case that "people want to do the right thing". people want to support that authors and creators whose work they appreciate. but i think they also don't want to feel like they are being taken for a ride by content providers.
some people have argued that piracy is actually encouraged by drm. that goes back to the notion that sharing is part of our culture ; we're encouraged to share our belongings from childhood, yet now with the advent of digital media we are supposed to suppress what is not only ingrained in us from a young age but is also a natural reaction of generosity (when i lend a paper book to a friend, i do it because i enjoyed it and think she will also enjoy it, and i want her to have the pleasure of discovering the author). and that brings us again to the ideas that people want to support the artists they appreciate, and also that obscurity is a bigger danger : if i share a book with a friend, and she likes the author, chances are she'll buy more books by that author. whereas if i had not shared my book, perhaps she would never had heard of the author at all...